r,
there had been exasperating and unexpected delays in their shipment.
Magnus and Harran both had counted upon having the ploughs in their
implement barns that very week, but a tracer sent after them had only
resulted in locating them, still en route, somewhere between The Needles
and Bakersfield. Now there was likelihood of rain within the week.
Ploughing could be undertaken immediately afterward, so soon as the
ground was softened, but there was a fair chance that the ranch would
lie idle for want of proper machinery.

It was ten minutes before train time when Harran reached the depot at
Guadalajara. The San Francisco papers of the preceding day had arrived
on an earlier train. He bought a couple from the station agent and
looked them over till a distant and prolonged whistle announced the
approach of the down train.

In one of the four passengers that alighted from the train, he
recognised his father. He half rose in his seat, whistling shrilly
between his teeth, waving his hand, and Magnus Derrick, catching sight
of him, came forward quickly.

Magnus--the Governor--was all of six feet tall, and though now well
toward his sixtieth year, was as erect as an officer of cavalry. He was
broad in proportion, a fine commanding figure, imposing an immediate
respect, impressing one with a sense of gravity, of dignity and a
certain pride of race. He was smooth-shaven, thin-lipped, with a
broad chin, and a prominent hawk-like nose--the characteristic of
the family--thin, with a high bridge, such as one sees in the later
portraits of the Duke of Wellington. His hair was thick and iron-grey,
and had a tendency to curl in a forward direction just in front of his
ears. He wore a top-hat of grey, with a wide brim, and a frock coat, and
carried a cane with a yellowed ivory head.

As a young man it had been his ambition to represent his native
State--North Carolina--in the United States Senate. Calhoun was his
"great man," but in two successive campaigns he had been defeated.
His career checked in this direction, he had come to California in the
fifties. He had known and had been the intimate friend of such men as
Terry, Broderick, General Baker, Lick, Alvarado, Emerich, Larkin, and,
above all, of the unfortunate and misunderstood Ralston. Once he had
been put forward as the Democratic candidate for governor, but failed
of election. After this Magnus had definitely abandoned politics and had
invested all his money in the Corpus